Pubdate: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2006 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: Eric Ferkenhoff Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) MASS RAIDS TAKE AIM AT CHICAGO DRUG RING CHICAGO -- Hundreds of federal agents and Chicago police officers carried out mass raids across the city and nearby suburbs before dawn today, aimed at what they said was one of the deadliest drug rings seen in years. Among the dozens of people arrested in the raids was a female Chicago police officer described as a conspirator, according to the police. A person said to be a ranking member of the drug ring was arrested in Ohio late Tuesday night, before the raids began. The police and federal agents executed a total of 48 warrants in and around Chicago, most of them at the Dearborn Homes public housing project, located just a few blocks from police headquarters. Authorities said the drug ring deals in fentanyl, a painkiller developed in the 1960's that surfaced as a street drug two decades ago, often as an additive in heroin. The ring has been blamed for at least 70 overdose-related deaths in the Chicago area and at least 200 others across the eastern half of the country, from St. Louis to Camden, N.J. Authorities said the ring was based in Chicago and was dealing in fentanyl that was most likely manufactured in Mexico. A news conference is planned later this afternoon at the United States Attorney's office in Chicago to announce further details of the raids, which were called the product of a yearlong investigation. Authorities in Chicago said they first started noticing a pattern of overdoses associated with fentanyl in April 2005. After a lull, they said, the activity picked up again early this year, and several dozen fentanyl-related deaths were reported in Chicago and its suburbs during March and April. Authorities said the drug has proven deadly when taken alone, but more often in a mixture with heroin and sometimes cocaine and alcohol. The drug ring in Chicago was run, the police said, by several gangs, but chiefly a gang called the Mickey Cobras, which operates out of the Dearborn Homes housing project, a mostly mid-rise and low-rise development. At least four federal agencies -- the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, United States Marshalls and the United States Attorney's office -- were involved in the raids, as were the Chicago police and fire departments. Officers mustered before 5 a.m. Central time in the parking lot of U.S. Cellular Field, the home stadium for the Chicago White Sox on the near South Side of the city. After roll call, Timothy Ogden, the associate special agent in charge of the D.E.A.'s Chicago office, warned the gathered officers about the dangers of the drug. "It is dangerous to the touch," he said. "You can overdose by simply touching the stuff and touching it to your eyes, your nose or other areas of your body." Members of a S.W.A.T. team and special operations officers loaded up high-powered rifles and took up positions around the Dearborn Homes as the operation began, but the raids proceeded over the next several hours apparently without violent incident. Successive teams of officers and agents secured buildings, then entered apartments, and finally arrested and removed suspects. Because of widespread use of surveillance cameras to deter street crime, the fentanyl drug activity had largely moved indoors, the police said, with users sometimes forced to take the drug in the apartment where it was sold to them. Authorities said that the rash of overdose deaths from the fentanyl ring's activities is the worst they have seen since the peak of crack cocaine abuse or the resurgence of heroin as a street drug in the 1980's. Officials in Chicago said that while the operation here was the largest, other raids aimed at the same drug ring were also being conducted in other cities. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman